It seems like it's become open season
on Christian values these days.
This big shift has happened in our culture
where people are celebrated for living
against God's word.
They're celebrated as being brave and true to themself.
But when you, when you live for God,
when you say to someone, "I value what God values,"
then suddenly you can be targeted.
You can be ridiculed and mocked,
and awful, awful things can be said about you.
Man, it's becoming really difficult
to be proud and positive as a Christian
on school campuses, in workplace environments,
even in our own families and extended families.
Huge fights can end up happening.
There's something that I've seen and witnessed
in my time of just kind of living and being
inside the world.
And it has to go back to this idea of moral relativism.
Whatever your morals and values are,
they're relative to you.
And someone else's truth is their truth,
and your truth is your truth.
And we kind of co-exist, but sometimes
we collide against each other.
How do you, how do you live your faith
in a bold, strong way in this environment?
Well one of the big things to do
is just to be confident,
to have conviction.
There's value in having conviction
of your faith life in Jesus.
Now, I worked in a restaurant
for about 12 years.
Actually, a bunch of different restaurants.
I can't count the number of glasses
that I filled over that time.
In fact, I got really good at a pretty useless skill.
This just shows how many glasses of water
I filled up over the years.
And as I did that.
As I worked among, I think over 1,000 different people,
there's something that I noticed.
I noticed that when a person came in,
and was a believer and had conviction,
had confidence in their faith,
they were respected.
They were kind of left alone.
They weren't really attacked.
But when someone came into the environment that I worked in and
the majority of people there weren't Christian,
and if that Christian was wishy washy
in their faith,
they got attacked.
People went after them.
There was this unofficial game
that ended up happening,
where the non-Christians had this contest
to see which of them could get the wishy washy Christian
drunk first,
which one of the non-Christians
could the wishy washy Christian
to do something sexually inappropriate.
And they got attacked.
And they went after them.
So how do you live your faith in a bold way
and be safe?
Again, it boils down to living your faith
with conviction,
with this confidence.
What does that mean?
What does it mean to be a person of faith
who has conviction?
It does not mean
that you have to have the entire Bible figured out.
To be a Christian of conviction
does not mean that you have to know all 12 tribes of Israel.
You don't have to correctly spell
all 12 of the disciples' names.
You don't have to know the 10 Commandments
in revers order.
You don't have to do that.
To be a Christian of conviction and confidence,
you simply have to be confident that Jesus loves you.
And that you know that.
That you love that, and that you love Him.
That is a person of conviction.
And in the culture that we live in,
when you have that confidence, so often
you are left alone.
And those people in my work environment
who had that confidence, who were not ashamed
to share that they love Jesus,
were left alone, and for the most part, respected.
Paul wrote something about this.
Paul gave encouragements to the people in Rome.
These newer Christians that were there,
and he encouraged them to not be ashamed of the Gospel,
and he said why.
He said, it is the power of God
that brings salvation to everyone who believes.
God's power is in His Gospel.
And this incredible power that's there
blasts away a lifetime
of sin and shame.
In fact, this word here, translated as power
is where we get our English word dynamite from.
And that's what God does.
God blows away a lifetime of sin.
He blasts away every wrong that you've ever done.
And so you can have this incredible peace.
This amazing confidence
to live your faith boldly,
with conviction,
simply knowing
that Christ loves you.
When you live that way,
so often you're respected.
So often your truth becomes your truth
and people leave you alone,
and you can have that joy.
Growing joy
in the power of how much God loves you.
When you live your life with moral conviction,
people notice, and maybe you noticed.
Maybe there was someone in your life
that you saw them living just boldly and beautifully
their faith, and it drew you to learn more about Jesus.